Game Over: Jerry Sandusky, Penn State, and the Culture of Silence
This month we’re looking at how power silences victims, starting with this weeks book, Game Over: Jerry Sandusky, Penn State, and the Culture of Silence by Bill Moushey and Bob Dvorchak. So lets do this.
This story...was revolting. But, the authors did an outstanding job explaining the back story of how this came to happen. And for better or for worse, it starts with Joe Paterno. Because he was the man behind what became the juggernaut of Penn State football. In the author’s words “Just as Zeus ruled the world from Mount Olympus, Joe Paterno reigned supreme over the world of college football from Mount Nittany.”
He started his career at Penn State University as assistant coach to Charles “Rip” Engle in May 1950. Paterno was highly educated, he had a college degree from Brown University, he was well read and cultured, enjoying classical Greek literature, opera, classical music...and Football. Never mind the Nittany Lions, you don’t become a football coach if you don’t love the game. Paterno’s parents were a bit disappointed, I think his mom wanted him to become a lawyer. But his father was a bit more prosaic on the matter and when Paterno told him he wanted to be a full time coach as a career, his father told him “Whatever you do, make an impact. Don’t waste your life just winning football games. Have an impact.”
And he did, and future scandals notwithstanding, his impact WAS largely for the better. He insisted all his players had to keep their grades up. There was no “D is for Degree” mentality, if they couldn’t keep their GPA up, they couldn’t play for Joepa. Subsequently, an inordinate number of Penn State players went on to work for fortune 500 companies, there was at least one astronaut in the mix, an ungodly amount of professional NFL players came out of Penn State. All these are spelled out in the book.
In 1965, Engle retired and Paterno, as the heir apparent, was appointed to be the head coach. And he began his Grand Experiment, explaining to his recruits “What if we have the best of both worlds? What if Penn State kids were smart enough to graduate from Harvard and athletic enough to beat Alabama?”
I am not a football person, but based on context, I’m guessing Alabama’s team is pretty good?
And he began building an insular empire...so insular that the conditions became quite ripe for a dirty underbelly. One of the experts referred to in the book is a lady who I believe successfully sued the Catholic Church on behalf of the victims there, and she compared conditions at Penn State as being as insular and protective as the Church’s. We all know about the scandals there. But that’s the topic of next weeks book.
Paterno did build his empire, and his teams were impressive, winning game after game...not all of them, but a majority of games played were wins. But to build a good team of players, you need a good staff for support, and in 1969 Paterno hired Jim Weaver and Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky had first been a player at Penn State under Paterno and had worked as a graduate assistant for Paterno in 1966, before taking a couple of other coaching positions.
Sandusky was initially hired in charge of tackles and tight ends...for the record, still not a football person. I have no idea what that means. But not too long after he was moved to be in charge of defense, a position he held until his retirement in 1999. More on that in a bit.
Sandusky had a reputation as a prankster, he always enjoyed pranks...so to me that translates as asshole because pranks are usually mean spirited at someones expense. The book describes it as childish, like throwing water balloons from car windows. I call that assault, but then again, what the hell do I know?
Sandusky did marry, Dorothy “Dottie” Gross, and they shortly after learned they were unable to have children, so they opted to adopt instead. And in 1977, Sandusky incorporated The Second Mile, a registered not for profit whose stated purpose was to mentor troubled kids, involving them in games and athletics, trying to help them turn their lives around. The Second Mile quickly became involved, through Sandusky, with Penn State sporting events, and Sandusky would bring kids to games as his guest, and host charity golf tournaments on Penn States golf course. Paterno was a frequent guest speaker at The Second Mile.
And Sandusky was a hell of a defensive coordinator, to give the devil his due. And here is where the insular nature of State College, PA, where Penn State University is located, becomes so very insidious. Over the course of Paterno’s career, Penn State football would become a billion dollar enterprise, with corporate sponsorships from Nike and others...I recall Nike specifically, but I don’t remember who else, and while there is a list on the Penn State site, I don’t know who among those were sponsors when the scandals came to light. But all of this was done under Paterno, who arranged the sponsorships.
Now, despite having the winningest teams, and the stellar performance of his defensive coordinator, in May 1999 Paterno informed Sandusky that he was not the heir apparent, and would never be head coach at Penn State. And shortly after that, on July 1, 1999, Sandusky announced his retirement—the 1999 season would be his last as defensive coordinator for Penn State. Paterno’s stated reason was the Sandusky was too busy with his charity, The Second Mile, to effectively be a head coach.
Sandusky’s retirement package was a pretty sweet deal, an initial lump sum of $148,271 with a yearly pension of $58,898. At 55 years old, he was certainly still young enough to have a retirement job if he so wished. The retirement package from Penn State also granted him emeritus status at Penn State, due to his tenured position pre-retirement, so he kept his rank and title. And was allowed to have unlimited access to all football facilities and all recreational facilities. And a parking pass for the campus. And an office on site. Even though he’s retired. So basically, the only thing that changed is he was no longer required to work. But he could if he wanted to, everything was still there.
Now...you do have to wonder what Joepa knew and when he knew it. The authors point out that he knew EVERYTHING that happened in his kingdom, even citing an incident when one of his players got a speeding citation in another state, Joepa knew it. Charlie Pittman, who was among the first quarterbacks Paterno coached, is quoted in the book as saying “I don’t want to presuppose anything because most of the story has yet to come out. But Joe didn’t have a boss at Penn State. He hand-picked his own boss in Tim Curley. It got to a point where people didn’t question him. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I’m not saying he was corrupt, but the power he created provided the opportunity for corruption to breed.”
In May 1998, a mother contacted campus police, furious that her eleven year old son had showered naked with Jerry Sandusky on campus. This, incidentally, is the correct law enforcement agency to complain to. I know people assume campus police are rent-a-cops. They are not. They are POST certified. They are authorized to make arrests and investigate crimes. And since the alleged crime...and I’m using alleged here because this book, while released in 2012 shortly after Paterno’s death, it was before trials had occurred. Which actually speaks to an absolute miracle of speedy trials, which I’ll come back to in a bit. But at this point in the story, it’s an alleged crime, which occurred on campus, at the Penn State Gym. In that a fully adult grown ass man, had showered naked with her eleven year old son, “bear hugging him” while both were naked in the shower.
Her son had met Sandusky through The Second Mile. She was a single mother. Their first interaction with Sandusky had been when her son was 7, at a picnic hosted by The Second Mile. On this particular night in question, in May 1998, her eleven year old was so flustered at the thought of showering with a man that he tried to pick a shower as far from Sandusky as he could, but Sandusky was having none of it, calling him over to where he...Sandusky….had already warmed up the showers. Sandusky then soaped the child up, lathering him all over, before rinsing him off. The kid was so freaked out he asked to be taken home, where he immediately told his mom what was up.
And she, as any mother would do, called campus police and demanded Sandusky be arrested. Detective Ronald Schreffler took her complaint and he took it quite seriously. He knew this was a profoundly delicate situation that involved a child and an allegation against a pillar of the community. But he conducted a thorough investigation, tapping in the Centre County Department of Children and Youth Services, who, quite correctly passed the investigation over to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare in Harrisburg, citing a conflict of interest, as the Centre County Department of Children and Youth Services worked quite closely with The Second Mile.
Yet despite what was unquestionably a thorough and above board investigation, there simply wasn’t enough evidence to say that it wasn’t a simple misunderstanding. Penn State police, which at the time was headed by Penn State administrator Gary Schultz, had decided not to pursue charges. Penn State President Graham Spanier and Joe Paterno would later insist they had never been informed of the investigation. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare investigator Jerry Lauro felt that the probe needed more investigation, but without further details, lacked the ability to do so on his own.
But this was one year before Paterno would tell Sandusky you’re not the heir, you’ll never be head coach.
Now, from here, the timeline jumps around a bit. All the salient details are presented, but not in order in which they occurred. But there is reason for this, which I’ll get to in a minute.
So this first crack, where in something is KNOWN to have happened, was 1998. Four years later, March 2002, graduate assistant Mike McQueary was on campus one night to pick up some tapes of prospective recruits to review. He arrived just after 9pm, the athletic complex was dark...I mean it’s past 9pm and it was Spring break, so not a lot of people were around. As he walked into the locker room, he heard the skin on skin sound of sex...if you’ve ever had sex, especially shower sex where all the skins is wet, you know the sound I mean.
Now, he assumed it was a player with a girlfriend, or maybe a kinky janitor. As he entered the locker room, he spotted in a mirror Sandusky, bent over the form of a 10 year old kid.
Now...I get it. I get his initial reaction was stunned disbelief and shock. McQueary had grown up in State College, he was friends with Sandusky’s kids, he saw Sandusky as a second father figure himself, their families were friends. Rather than direct confrontation, McQueary quietly backed out to give himself a moment to regroup, then LOUDLY slammed a locker door, and walked back into the shower. Where he saw Sandusky had separated himself from the poor kid….who, as the author’s point out repeatedly, NO ONE tried to find out who this kid was.
The three made awkward eye contact, and McQueary left. This...this I do fault him for. I tried really hard not to, because I wasn’t there. And it’s really easy to say, “Well I’D do the right thing. I’D take the kid with me.” But you don’t really know that until you’re the one in that position. McQueary left. And left the kid with Sandusky.
And then called his dad and asked what he should do. Ok, I don’t judge him for that. ALOT of people would have no idea what to do in the shock of the moment and would probably call a trusted friend or family member to ask for help on next steps.
What I remain absolutely baffled by...like, how do these people sleep at night? How do they look themselves in the mirror? McQueary, his dad, and another family friend who was roped into the advise session...all agreed that McQueary should report what he saw...to Joepa. Not one of these adults said….hey, this is a felony. Against a defenseless child. LETS GO TO THE POLICE.
So McQueary told Joepa. Who said he’d take it from here. And reported it to...Athletic Director Tim Curley...and Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz. The same Gary Schultz who was in charge of the Penn State PD in 1998, when the prior allegations had been investigated. And THESE guys decided the best course of action...was to ban Sandusky and The Second Mile kids from using Penn State facilities.
And that was it. McQueary was given an assistant coaching position and asked if he was satisfied with the outcome. Which he said he was.
And another 9 years would pass before Sandusky would be arrested. But the serious investigation into his actions would begin in 2008. Spring of 2008, when a mother was summoned to her son’s high school, where he was in the middle of a full break down, after admitting to the sexual assaults which occurred under the auspices of The Second Mile.
While it is widely known NOW that schools are mandated reporters, and they were mandated reporters even in 2008, the fact that they were mandated reporters was not as widely known back then. The mother insisted the school call the police. And the school send her home to consider her options over the weekend. She was so pissed, she called a friend of hers who was a social worker, who made a report and handed it to Clinton County District Attorney.
And from here, it snowballs. The investigators who were NOT a part of the insular town of State College, PA, found at least 10 different victims, who all told alarmingly similar stories. Sandusky liked his kids between 8 and 12 years of age. There was quite a bit of overlap in his victims and he’d start grooming the next before the first had quite aged out.
They found a janitor who had also witnessed and reported an assault in the Penn State locker showers in 2000...part of why this was out of sequence is that janitor suffered from dementia or Alzheimers...something that made him NOT a credible witness at the time of the grand jury testimony and later arrest.
State police officer Corporal Joe Leiter was the first to believe Sandusky was a serial predator, and manged to track down these victims, first through interviews with kids from The Second Mile, and then through reading Sandusky’s autobiography...which is, ironically, called… I shit you not...Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story. But he used the names and pictures in the book to track down more victims. This book was published in 1998 or 1999, and the pictures went back a decade from there. Many now believe he was raping children from the time he opened The Second Mile in 1977 up until he was forcefully stopped with his arrest.
Sandusky was arrested on November 5, 2011 and the arrest shocked the nation. I live in Nevada and I heard about it. The Penn State board of trustees fired Paterno. Which the student body rioted over. Because of course they fucking did. I gotta wonder if even one of them later got reflective and thought...what about the victims? Joepa had made honor and doing the right thing his whole ethos, yet when it came time to do the right thing, he chose not to. And the only reason I can think of is he was worried that if the news got out, it would tarnish his legacy.
Which...well damn, did that ship sail! And in a horribly ironic twist, if he had just DONE THE RIGHT THING his legacy would remain tact and he would be regaled the world over as a just man, who did the hard thing in the face of scandal. Instead, he died two months later, and while Penn State mourned him in droves, the rest of the country thinks of him in disgust, as the catalyst who allowed a serial rapist to keep preying on children, in the name of protecting some bullshit legacy.
Now, as I said, the arrest happened November 2011. Joe Paterno died on January 22, 2012 and his funeral is described in this book, so the book came out AFTER that. But before the trial, since that information was not included. So I googled some outcomes for closure.
Jerry Sandusky went to trial for 52 charges of sexual crimes against children on June 11, 2012. The trial lasted 8 days. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on 45 counts on June 22, 2012, facing a maximum of 442 years in prison, and a minimum of 60 years. His earliest possible release date, assuming he gets parole, will be October 9, 2042, he will be 98 years old.
Other Penn State staff tried were Timothy Curley, Gary Schultz, and Graham Spanier (the Penn State president). Curley and Schultz both ultimately pled guilty to chld endangerment in exchange for dismissing the conspiracy charges against them. This was on March 13, 2017. Spanier was convicted of child endangerment in March 2017.
On some level, Paterno had to know this that burying this was going to come back to bite him in the ass. And I absolutely believe he knew what kind of man Sandusky was, so he had to know his legacy was ruined the moment he chose silence. As I said in the start of the review, he was an educated man and a classicist. His favorite work was Virgil’s The Aenead. And the book closes with an entirely appropriate quote from Paterno “As Aeneas found out, life comes down on you with some terrible whacks if you don’t do the right thing.”
